Contract Manager

NYSERDA; City of Albany (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

NYSERDA is seeking a Contract Manager to support procurement, contracting, and reporting in a high-volume government environment. You will guide planning, solicitations, negotiations, and contract administration across programs and services critical to New York's energy transition.

The role emphasizes policy compliance, risk management, and collaboration with legal and cross-functional teams to deliver timely outcomes while leveraging emerging technologies to improve efficiency and transparency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with relevant contracting or procurement experience.
• Ability to draft contractual instruments and analyze terms.
• Experience developing procurement, contract, or operational reports.
• Experience with AI/automation tools in contracting workflows is a plus.
• Strong communication and stakeholder collaboration abilities.

Responsibilities

• Interpret procurement needs and recommend approaches while ensuring policy compliance.
• Manage solicitation development, contract negotiation, and contract closeout.
• Develop timely procurement and contract reporting and analysis.
• Support evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies for contracting workflows.
• Provide guidance to teams during planning, solicitations, evaluations, and negotiations.
• Collaborate with legal to ensure compliance with laws and policies.

Skills

MS Office skills

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

Presentation skills

Interpersonal skills

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

MS Office suite

Contract management system

Job description

As a leader in advancing New York’s energy transition, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is a credible, objective and trusted partner in energy planning and in deploying new innovative technologies to build an affordable, abundant, reliable, and clean energy system. NYSERDA works with stakeholders statewide, including residents, business owners, developers, community leaders, local government officials, universities, utilities, investors, entrepreneurs, and more, to develop, invest, and foster conditions that:

• Attract the private sector capital investment needed to expand New York’s clean energy economy.
• Advance solutions for using clean energy at a large-scale in New York.
• Enable New York’s communities and residents to benefit equitably in the clean energy transition.

NYSERDA seeks to fill two Contract Manager positions who will support the full range of procurement, contracting, and reporting activities in NYSERDA's high volume government contracting environment.

This Contract Manager will manage the full range of procurement and contracting activities including procurement planning guidance, solicitation development, contract negotiation, administration, closeout, and reporting. This individual will play a critical support role in making NYSERDA more effective to our customers, partners, and colleagues, while adhering to NYSERDA’s procurement policies and practices. Further, this position will support assigned teams to perform their work seamlessly, timely and effectively while appropriately minimizing the risk NYSERDA undertakes in its contracting.

Primary Responsibilities

• Serve as a resource for assigned teams by interpreting procurement needs & requirements, recommending appropriate procurement approaches, identifying potential compliance or process risks, and helping teams navigate NYSERDA’s procurement policies and procedures from planning through award and contract execution.
• Manage the full range of contracting and procurement activities including solicitation development and launch, scope of work development, contract negotiation, contract package organization, development and execution of contract modifications and task work orders, tracking, reporting and analysis of contract actions, and contract closeout.
• Develop, maintain, and provide accurate and timely procurement and contract reporting, including status updates, contract action tracking, procurement pipeline reporting, cycle-time analysis, workload metrics, and other reports needed to support regulatory reporting, management oversight, audit readiness, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Support the evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and automation tools, to improve contract administration, workflows, and reporting, while ensuring responsible use, appropriate oversight, and compliance.
• Drive and foster a customer-service orientation to contracting - positioning assigned teams for timely and effective contracting of the programs, goods and services that are critical to executing NYSERDA’s strategy.
• Educate and advise assigned teams in all contracting and procurement matters and execute all related actions.
• Collaborate with legal counsel to evaluate contract requirements, special provisions and other terms and conditions to ensure compliance with appropriate laws, regulations and organizational policies and procedures.
• Effectively manage risk, perform risk analysis for all contractual documents and recommend mitigating options.
• Partner with, train, and support colleagues throughout the Authority to enable their success in adhering to contract regulations and managing the Authority's risk.
• Provide procurement and contracting guidance to assigned teams during planning meetings, solicitation development, scoring committees, evaluations, award recommendations, debriefs, contract negotiations, and contract administration activities.
• Understand the full suite of NYSERDA contracting and provide back-up to other Contract Managers as required.
• Perform all job responsibilities with respect, fairness, consistency, and inclusion.
• Perform other responsibilities as required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 3 years of experience. Progressive responsibility in contracting, procurement, or related disciplines may be substituted in lieu of degree and a comprehension of technical contract language and ability to draft contractual instruments.
• A good technical comprehension of contract language, terms and conditions and ability to apply this knowledge to contracts.
• Experience developing, maintaining, and analyzing procurement, contract, or operational reports, including tracking contract actions, procurement status, cycle times, milestones, and workload metrics.
• Experience in using emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and automation tools, with a focus on driving greater efficiency, consistency, and visibility across contract lifecycles.
• Demonstrated problem-solving ability; ability to leverage necessary resources to develop and communicate robust processes.
• Ability to draft contractual instruments such as Solicitations, Agreements and Statements of Work after collaborating with our internal stakeholders to ensure the objectives are met, reduce risk to NYSERDA and allow operational freedoms where necessary.
• Extraordinary diligence and thoroughness.
• A strong consensus-builder with an ability to build productive relationships across a diverse organization.
• Skilled in managing multiple, diverse activities simultaneously, delivering on commitments and operating with speed, accuracy, and strong judgment.
• Demonstrated ability and commitment to continuous learning.
• High level of energy and enthusiasm with the ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced setting.
• An ability to drive to big picture goals and solve strategic problems while valuing and maintaining a strong attention to detail.
• An ability to quickly identify and drive to the optimal solution when presented with a series of opportunities and/or constraints.
• Strong presentation and interpersonal skills that resonate with audiences of different backgrounds; the ability to communicate persuasively, concisely, and unambiguously in speech and writing.
• Strong MS Office skills, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and database or contract management system experience; ability to use data and reporting tools to track procurement activity, monitor contract status, and prepare management reports.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 5 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in contracting, procurement, or related disciplines within a NYS Agency or Authority.

Please submit your resume. Cover letters are welcome but not required. To receive full consideration please apply by 09/30/2026.

Please note that during the application process, you may be prompted to opt-in to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) scoring. This is an automatic request in the ADP system but is not a feature that is used by NYSERDA in its recruiting and hiring process. Your response will have no impact on your application to NYSERDA.